the art of body language and

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The Art of Body Language andPresenting Smoothly

What an amazing amount of courage it takes for any of us tostand before an audience. Every speaker, no matter howfamous, needs bravery to speak to an aud ience. Your brav-ery is increased because you are able to communicate intwo languages: The language of speech and the language ofthe body.

Your stance, how you move, and your facial and hand ges-tures tell the audience about you. According to Arnold andRoach (1989), non-verbal messages often take precedence

over verbal and communicate more. Psychologists tell us thewords we use comprise at best only 30% of communication.

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T h e A r t o f B o d y L a n g u a g e

This is good news to those of us whose English is poor, tothose of us wh o dislike spe aking, and to those of us wh o haves lides . No w, how to use your bo dy to comm unicate the mes-sages you want to give the audience? You need good eyecontact as well as a s tance and gestures that show yourcourage.

E Y E C O N T A C T

W he ther yo u are brave or not, you m ust appe ar brave. Theeas ies t way to appe ar brave - the ma gic touch o f a goodpresenter- i s to look di rec t ly a t the audience . This g ives theimpression of being confident about your material . In yourpersonal l i fe you look at people w hen you talk to them. Thesecret for success with an audience is to appear to be havinga conversat ion with them.

Look at them. Look at those to the left , to the right, in thefront , in the back. W atch them intently to show how mu ch youwant them to understand. They wil l l is ten more intent ly andunders tand much bet ter whe n they rea lize how much youwant them to unders tand.

Look steadily at them. First at those in one place and thenat those in another, looking a t each place for 5-10 secondsor longer. If i t distracts you to look directly into faces, look atthe level of their faces but between faces. No one in a largeaudience wil l be able to tel l you are not looking direct ly intosomeone 's eyes . (Don ' t t ry th is a t par t ies or dur ing coffeebreaks or you wi l l be thought of as evas ive or ext remely

abse ntm inded . ) Bew are of looking a t the floor, or a t the ce i l-ing as you speak: The audience knows no one i s ly ing down

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there , or hanging up there , and wi l l wonder why you appearto be t ry ing to make eye contac t the table or the chandel ier.

Above al l , do not let yourself be taken hostage by'PowerPoint ' and the screen. Technology has permit tedyou to make beautiful slides; now trust i t to remain inplace behind you or beside you. Glancing only brief ly atthe screen to remind yourself what the audience is seeing

or to use the laser occasionally to emphasize a point .Genera l ly keep your eyes on the audience and earn the i rrespect .

K E E P I N G A N " O P E N B O D Y "

Keeping your body open to the audience means keeping theentire front of your body facing the audience as ful ly, and asmuch, as possible. An expert will avoid hiding behind apodium or table. Step out . Step close to the audience andmake them your f riends .

Cover ing the f ront of your b ody wi th yo ur arm/s sugges ts youwish to hide the essence of who you are. Try to keep your

arms and gestures open to the audience. Above al l , avoidturning your back and speaking at the same t ime. Englishhas an idiom about ' turning one 's back on something' , whichmeans reject ing i t . So make al l gestures at the screen withthe arm c loses t to the screen so tha t you do not cross yourbody with your arm or turn your back. Instead trust thescreen, know your s l ides, and give your at tent ion to the audi-ence not the screen. A brief glance wil l be enough to remind

you what each s l ide conta ins , and then you - l ike the exper tyou are - can look at the audien ce as you speak.

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Moving some as you present i s f ine . For example , you lookgood wh en you walk a b i t as you spe ak or ges ture . However,you want to avoid rocking back and forth, which distractsthe audience , and par t icular ly avoid s tepping backwards .Moving backwards s ignals you are unsure ; you want to keepthe audience f rom thinking you are unsure about what youare p resent ing.

Some presenters worry about what to do wi th thei r hands .The best thing to do with your hands is not to think aboutthem. Think about sc ience . Then use your hands to get yourmessag e ac ross and to sho w your en thus iasm. The aud iencedese rves to see that you enjoy wh at you do.

Work on deve lop ing some easy open-hand ges tu res wi thyou r o ther hand that wi ll he lp you e xpla in yo ur work. W hat isnatura l for you to do wi th your hands when you have afr iendly ta lk wi th f r iends or family? Observe yoursel f f romwithin , and then use these ges tures to help you when youwant to communicate wi th an audience . Par t icular ly effec t ivegestures are any in which yo ur palms a re up, f ingers sp read,or the thum b and ano ther finger touch each other.

Audiences apprec ia te speakers who show they have openedthei r minds by speaking w i th thei r hands and arms as well aswith the ir slides an d voices. You will look inform ed, con fident,and exper ienced.

U S I N G A L A S E R

One of your hands may be holding a laser, which can sodr ive an audience crazy that poss ib ly sc ient is ts should not

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be permit ted to handle this terr ible instrument. However, thelaser has one great advantage: i t g ives one of your handssomething to do. If you use it , use it correctly.

T h e O f f B u t t o n

The most important par t of a laser i s the Off but ton. Even

some wor ld - famous sc ien t i s t s have shown they do no tunde rs tand the use of the O ff but ton. Ins tead the y have useda dancing, jumping l ight as they talk. The l ight f lashesup /down- le f t / r igh t -z ig /zag-c i rc le / swi r l : The aud ience canhardly hear or see the good sc ience because thei r eyes t ryto fol low the path of l ight as i t sweeps irrat ionally around thescreen. The speaker knows what the l ight i s t ry ing toemphasize , but the audience does not . Consequent ly, theaudience 's com preh ens ion and co ncen tra tion fade . Your jobas a presenter is to learn to use the laser correct ly, or not touse it at all.

W hen you use a laser, em ploy a single, s te ady s po t of light toshow the aud ience where to look . Use a 2 -3 second spo t o flight, indicating the exact location of the information you are

abo ut to explain. K eep the l ight s teady; you r voice si lent ; thensnap the laser off and talk. A moving streak of l ight confusesthe aud ience about where they should look and when youtalk at the same time you flash the laser, the light will fl ickerabout and dis t rac t the audience f rom hear ing your words .Watch at your next conference and notice how a l ight f lyingabout the screen l ike a nervous butterf ly makes readingdiagrams extraordinari ly diff icult . Your audience consists of

in te l l igent people who want to s tudy and unders tand yourslides. Let them.

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Once you have learned to master the Off but ton you showthe audience: 1)You are a sk i l led presenter, 2)You knowyou r s l ides well, and 3) You resp ect yo ur l is teners .

W h i c h H a n d a n d H o w t o S t a n d

Where you stand and in which hand you hold the laser is

an important part of your body language. When you stand tothe left of the screen, use the laser in your right hand; whenyou stand to the right of the screen, use the laser in yourleft hand. If you move as you talk so that you go to theother s ide of the screen, switch the hand holding the laser sothat you do not ei ther put your arm across your body or turnyour back to the audience. Be brave. Face them all the timeand do it withou t closing yo ur bo dy off with you r arms.

Recently in Philadelphia, a presenter giving a plenary lectureat an internat ional meeting displayed an unusual and effec-tive technique. He steadied his laser hand by putting hisother hand on the wrist of the hand holding the laser. Thisway he could hold the spot s teady for several seconds. Hedid not turn his back nor look at the screen himself for morethan a br ief g lance . He was wel l -prepared: He knew whatwas on his s l ides; he showed the audience he knew. He wasan e xpert. You can b e one too.

P R A C T I S I N G

Once you have become comfor table wi th your s l ides , your

voice, and your body, you wil l have accomplished thebasics. Most important ly, you wil l have t imed your speech

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so that you never have the embarrassment of going overyour allotted time.

All presenting techniques must be practiced and mostscientists would rather do science than practice speaking.However, developing the type of speech-giving personawhich suits you only has to be done once. Then it is yoursforever, and you can get back to what is important: discover-

ing new ideas in science. So give your speech-giving self thepractice it needs, and you can be a speech-making successfor the rest of you r life.

Preparation

Your slides are ready. You have cho sen wh at to say. Now youmust practice aloud going through your slides, always timing

yourself. You may find you have no choice but to leave outsome important material, so save those slides for some otheruse. Practicing aloud is the only way you can be sure you willstay within the allotted time. You never want to have the expe-rience of having your audience grow restless and annoyed,or forcing the chair of the session to tell you to stop.

Once you have learned to control the volume and depth

of your voice, speaking to a large audience is usuallyeasier than speaking to an audience of 8-15 because the

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anonymous character of a large audience helps you to loseembar rassment .

Tw o w a r n i n g s

Experts advise us to avoid pract icing by looking into amir ro r- the person in the mi r ro r d i s t rac t s us and does no t

make a helpful audience . We are a lso warned that a l thoughpract ic ing in f ront of a smal l group of o ther profess ionalsor s tudents is helpful , surprisingly enough pract icing in frontof one 's family is extremely diff icult and often not helpful .

Your Confe rence Pe r sona

Now you are ready to pract ice your whole conference per-sona. One way to do this is to imagine that three walls of anempty room represent your audience and the four th wal l thescreen behind you. Imagine the three walls are rows of inter-ested scientis ts . Now tel l them your story by explaining yoursl ides to them. Glance only briefly at your sl ides on thescreen behind you. Keep your body, as much as possible,turned toward the audience . Mainta in eye contact wi th yourimaginary audience, talk, move, and gesture. Invite yourselfto feel comfortable as you tel l your story. Last , remember toche ck y ou r time. You are n ow forming habits for a l ifetime o fsuccess as a speaker.

Pract ice your speech as i f you are having a conversa t ionwith a fr iend. Use every technique you can think of to avoid

a monotone or a repet i t ious , rocking rhythm. An audienceenjoys hearing warmth in your voice. I t is a s ign you enjoy

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Here is the way to stay within an al lot ted number of minutes:First you must force yourself to be real is t ic about how muchyou can explain, s lowly and carefully, in the length of t imeyou are given. Perhaps you have valuable, lengthy results ,which need explanat ion of procedure , background, andfuture pos sibilit ies. Too bad, too bad, but tha t is how it is: Youare given a l im ited num be r of minutes. You cann ot tell themeve rything. You wil l 1) choo se w ha t is mo st impo rtant , 2) dis-

play it in clear, uncluttered slides, and 3) explain each slidein slow, simple, easy-to-understand English. Racing througha bewilder ing amount of rapid data i s the wors t mis take apresenter can make.

Y O U R F IN A L W O R D S

At the end of your speech s imp ly say 'Tha nk you.' This isthe bes t and kindest way to le t the audience know that youhave f inished. Do not worry about ending a bi t early. No onehas ever been upset when speakers end ear ly but they areeas i ly upset by those who speak too long. Should you endear ly, there is no embarrassment : You wi l l have more t imefor comments and the next speaker wi l l apprecia te your

cour tesy.

F I E L D I N G Q U E S T I O N S

Usually after your talk, there is t ime for quest ions and com-ments from the audience. Ideally during the quest ion period,the chair wil l repeat quest ions or comments so that they are

clear. But this is not always an ideal world, so if this doesn'thappen, you ask the quest ioner to repeat the quest ion so

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t h a t t h e w h o l e a u d i e n c e c a n h e a r i t - a n d s o y o u c a n h e a r i taga in and have add i t iona l t ime to th ink . Keep your vo ice upat this t ime, l is ten intent ly, and step toward the quest ioner.Do n ' t back away. Take you r time. You are the s pea ker ; youare in cont ro l h ere , no t the qu es t ioner.

You do no t need to f ea r th i s ques t ion pe r iod because , fo rs o m e p s y c h o l o g i c a l r e a s o n , b y t h e e n d o f a p r e s e n t a t io n ,

t h e a u d i e n c e is in s t i n c ti v e ly o n y o u r s id e . T h e y h a v e c o m et o i d e n t i f y s o t h o r o u g h l y w i t h y o u a n d y o u r s c i e n c e t h a tt h e y w i l l c o m e t o y o u r a i d t o p r o t e c t y o u f r o m s t r a n g e o rd i f f i c u l t q u e s t i o n s . S o d e p e n d o n t h e a u d i e n c e a n d b eready to a sk :

9 if som eo ne in the aud ience wi ll he lp you answer,9 the que s t ioner to r ephrase the ques t ion ,9 the ques t ione r to com e ta lk to you a f te r the sess ion ,

or be ready to say:

9 '1 do not un de rs tand yo ur que s t ion , p lease expla in ,9 'That is a goo d qu es t ion; I wi l l th ink abo ut it,9 '1 w ish I cou ld ans w er that .

R e m e m b e r t h i s p e r i o d o f q u e s t i o n s a n d c o m m e n t s m a ybe valuable to you. By l i s tening in tent ly to what people in theaud ience say, you may ge t impor tan t ins igh t s fo r your fu tu reresearch .

Stand s t ra ight , smi le , and look conf ident , for you have nowdeve lope d the p e r sona o f a f ine p resen te r. You have t augh t

yourse l f to keep your mind on your des i re to 1) te l l your s tory,2) communicate ideas , and 3) make sc ience a l i t t le b i t b igger

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The Art of Body Language

and better. You have learned to forget about you rself andconcentrate on communicating with the audience. You are anaccomplished and professional presenter.

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the art of body language and

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